A STUDY ON THE MECHANICAL EFFECTS OF GAS NITRIDING ON ALUMINIUM ALLOY 6061 FOR THE USE IN MOBILE PHONE CASING

The constant demands for low weight and high strength mobile phone casing lead manufacturers to utilize aluminium for the material selection. In this study, heat treatment process will be conducted on Aluminium Alloy 6061 by means of gas nitriding process. In this process, the aluminium sample was heat treated at temperature 550℃ while at the same time nitrogen gas diffused into the surface material after being introduced into the tube furnace. The samples were then tested for its improved properties using Rockwell hardness testing machine and Revetest Scratch Tester for its hardness and scratch resistance. The microstructure test was carried out to examine the formation of nitride layer using Optical Microscope (OM) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) built in with Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS). The experimental results comprised data comparing with both nitrided and unnitrided samples.